[nagdu] was matching,now owner training

Mardi Hadfield wolfsinger.lakota at gmail.com
Wed Apr 28 00:51:01 UTC 2010


Hi Rebecca,When I finally found the right dog to train,meaning he had the
right temperament, was medically sound, was eager to please me, and walked
in the right position for guiding from a wheel chair,then I started the
training. He did very well at obedience and house maners. Then on to
socializing. I ran into a few problems here. Shaman was so friendly that he
wanted to play with other dogs that we came across.I tried several different
methods of training to get him over that. Then on to guide work.Shaman being
very young at that time was easily distracted. I knew that as he matured
this problem would work it's self out and it did.Shaman learned the guide
work very fast and traffic checks were a breeze as he seemed to be very
traffic savvy to begin with.Then he was attacked by a pit bull. This scared
him to the point of becoming dog aggressive. I thought I might have to
retire him as he just could not seem to overcome this fear. He would run
behind my wheelchair and would bark and growl at other dogs. I was becoming
frustrated. I did not want to give up on him as it took so long to find the
right dog to begin with.I consulted several different trainers before I hit
on the right method. It took a lot of time and a lot of patience on my part,
but it finally started to work.He is now able to work around other guide
dogs and pet dogs with out any problems.I have now run into another problem
though. Shaman seems to be really bothered by the heat. I am ordering him a
"Cooler Jacket". I hope this will give him some relief from the heat. Nala
and Lily never seemed to be bothered by the heat. I can only hope the jacket
will work on him.If it does not help, I will have a winter only guide dog.
Mardi and Shaman and Nala, retired.

-- 
http://wolfsinger-lakota.blogspot.com/
http://wolfsinger2-thegoldendragon.blogspot.com



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